We are near the end of the semester now, and surely there are things that you wish we had discussed more in-depth or there are observations that you want to make about this class, literature, rhetoric, philosophy, or just life in general. Similar to the extra credit thread in our class discussion board, this is an open forum for you to ask questions, discuss issues, complain, or argue.
What do you beleive?
ReplyDeleteDo you believe in God?
War?
Love?
What are your ideas about humanity?
Is there and after life?
Is there such thing and REAL or TRUE?
Medusa
I wish that this class could be turned into a year long philosphy class in addition to AP Lang and Comp. I feel like there is a lot more to be discussed about postmodernism, gender, race, and all of the other things that we talked about in class.
ReplyDelete-asmigelsky
I don't believe reality or truth can be put in words, but I don't necessarily believe that means that God or some other higher power doesn't exist--just that we can't describe him/her/it effectively or put our experience and knowledge of the Truth into words that can communicate it accurately to other people. That is why I consider myself agnostic.
ReplyDeletePhaedrus
Which theory do you agree with most: Postmodernism or transcendentalism?
ReplyDelete-ViciousTrollup
I'm an atheist and I basically don't see how there is anything deeper than what simply exists. But I still liked being introduced to many other types of thought and how they are relfected in literature.
ReplyDeleteSue
Going off the first post, I've discovered through this year how strongly I belive that truth and reality are so sujective and have so much room for interpretation and miscommunication. It's important to make sure you know what's real and what's false but then again, how do you know? -iloveorange52
ReplyDeleteI personaly lean toward Postmodernism over transcendentalism, ViciousTrollup. I think it's similar, but postmodernism avoids all the self-righteous Truth claims.
ReplyDeletePhaedrus
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhat do you beleive? I believe that every human serves a unique purpose, and that God didn't put us down here to sit in church and worship him, or we'd all have our own planet.
Do you believe in God? I believe in a higher power, that is primarily good.
War? I believe in confrontation, but not open killing of other people.
Love? I believe in God, and I believe in the people around me, so yes. I believe in love.
What are your ideas about humanity? We are good, but we have faults.
Is there and after life? Yes, regardless of what it is, carbon based life forms don't have the equipment to feel pain and love the way we do without something else besides the chemicals that will go away when we die.
Is there such thing and REAL or TRUE? It varies from person to person.
I believe in reality and truth, but for personal understanding only. No one can completely share your reality, no matter how close to them you may be. Once you try to share your idea of reality and truth, it becomes distorted and confused from what you truty mean. For personal reaosns and personal understanding, they both exist, but for someone else, it's not your truth, or your reality, so it exists for them, and not you.
ReplyDelete-Yellow Rose
Do you believe it God?
ReplyDelete- It's really hard for me to answer this question. When i was younger and my parents were together i went to an Episcopal church and my family seemed very religious. Now however, i never to go church, except for on holidays. I love the aroma of faith when you entire a church on Christmas, but i still don't know what to believe. I want to believe there is a God that has kissed away my sins when he crucified, but it's hard for me to put so much faith in another person/spirit who i haven't experienced. I have to trust that the "end" will work out, otherwise death scares me. I guess i'm still finding out what to believe, still on the journey.
-cheers
Polarbear47, absolutely <3 your answers.
ReplyDeleteAlso agree with asmigelsky about the philosophy course thing. This year has made me interested in philosophy and now I want to major in it. Never even thought about philosophy really until this class.
- Zaphod Beeblebrox
Going off of Vicious Trollup's question, I beleive more in postmodernism, because I really value the input of others and believe that their ideas are important for forming my own. It's kindof like the realization that we couldn't have happy without sad, dark without light, etc.
ReplyDeleteOrangutan
At the beginning of the year, I believed in an objective truth, defining it merely as "life"--something that all humans shared.
ReplyDeleteAP Lang has made me lean more towards postmodernism.
Now I think we can only see little fragments of truth at a time and not the whole thing.
To quote Douglas Adams:
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
Ford Prefect
asmigelski's comment about this class being turned into a longer class is a good idea. The ideas introduced to us were really deep and hard to explain in the unit type situation that we had.
ReplyDeleteOrangutan
My response to the very first post:
ReplyDeleteI am being raised in a VERY religious family, the type of family where other beliefs are punished. Up until the time I entered Junior High, I went along with these beliefs and agreed with them. Now, I have found that I am an agnostic, and I don't agree with organized religion to a certain extent.
-ViciousTrollup
Vicious Trollup, I have to say I lean more towards transcendentalism because I believe that we can all have our own truths and we can share them with others and they can decide if they want to believe my truth or not but it could help someone enrich their own personal truth.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are no universal Truth or Reality but everyone has personal truths and realities which help them become a complete person who has self-understanding.
ReplyDeleteHasty "G"
medusa, I believe in a higher power who is primarily good. Whether or not this is God, is up to you. But I don't think this is all a happenstance. I personally have grown up not surrounded by religion, but I try to see good in people. If the bottom line of people is good, then I believe that they, like the higher power, are created in the "same image" to use bible terms. Which would make love universal, in my terms.
ReplyDeleteI believe in destiny and fate rather than "god". I am too irritated by churches being used as social control to believe in what they call "god". to quote a song called Perfect Symmetry by Keane; "Spineless dreamers hide in churches"... for me, god is the driving force behind all things, not a judgemental old man in the sky. God is what drives emotion, nature, humainty, everything. for me, "god" didn't write a rule book to follow, and "god" doesn't care if you're gay or republican or black or poor. "god" can't favor anybody, because god doesn't have human emotions. god is greater than that. you need to find your own morals to follow- not those of an outdated book translated by those who want to control you...
ReplyDelete-dj p0m0
dj p0m0-
ReplyDeleteI agree- but I think that you overlook the really great aspects of religion/churches- the sense of community, love, faith, a spiritual family in a sense.
But yes- religion/church as a way to define and control people makes me upset too. It should be above that and mean more to people than that.
-jumping.lily
I do believe that there is a "higher power," but I can't really say that I am a religous person at all. Truthfully...church ruined going to church for me. My church has such strong and unmovable beliefs on what is right and wrong, holy and unholy; it drives me insane. I was told last year (at church) that if i had been able to vote in the election of 2008 and had voted for Obama, I would have gone to hell because he was pro-choice.
ReplyDeletetruthfully, if i had been able to vote in the last election, i would have voted for Obama because he was pro choice.
I don't think I'm at liberty to say that there is definately a "god" or a higher power, becuase I don't know. None of us do. We can believe all we want, but until we know...we just don't know, however believing is powerful, and really important in many people's lives, which I think is great.
-Yellow Rose
dj p0m0, you have some interesting ideas, and I love hearing them... but I do want to warn you concerning your last statement. The Bible wasn't necessarily "translated by those who want to control you." Hundreds of thousands of manuscripts have been uncovered, many in the original language, and some even only a hundred years following Jesus' death (aka enormously accurate in context of other historical manuscripts). I'm not saying you have to believe in the Christian version of God whatsoever - just want to point out that they can and have been read/translated by both atheists and Christians. So the translators can't be considered controlling authorities. But of course it is your choice whether or not you believe or want to follow the morals inscribed within this book.
ReplyDelete- Zaphod Beeblebrox
dj p0m0
ReplyDeleteI think your ideas are really interesting and like to hear your perspective – but just want to catch that the Bible’s manuscripts in the original languages are widely available and can be translated by both atheists and Christians.
- Zaphod Beeblebrox
To Orangutan:
ReplyDeleteI don't think you can "believe" in postmodernism. I think you can accept it as a philosophy, but "believing" in it? I don't know. Maybe I'm just not understanding -- explain?
lillipbaum
I definitely loved this class for allowing us to have entire periods of just discussing. I think everyone, in our period at least, really enjoyed it. It taught us to better control our tempers, and I personally learned to listen to viewpoints that I wasn't used to hearing. Even just these post above me are evidence at how good we've gotten at openly expressing our opinion without offending anyone and calmly listening to opposition. I know for a fact the Deitrich's kids are jealous of us when it comes to this. I wish we had time for more!
ReplyDeleteUp and Over